Secret Love (BNA, 1998)

This is not a typical Lorrie Morgan country album. This album of pop standards may well have succeeded completely had they chosen to not cover them in their traditional settings. Morgan is no pop singer. She has chops, sure, but nothing to credibly prop up a great song like "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)." Imagine, for example, Sinatra singing a country-western standard. It would never have worked. And neither does this attempt.

Now, that's not to say this is a bomb. It's not. On the swinging tunes ("I've Got The World On A String," for example) she is out of her element. She has sass, but her fingers just don't snap. On several slowly sashaying tunes ("Once Upon A Time," "My Foolish Heart"), Morgan is more than convincing as a pop singer. She's pretty darned good.

Too bad they're not more plentiful. It's also too bad that artists sometimes fail to recognize their limitations.